I read today’s passage in the New Living Translation and saw something pretty cool:

John announced: “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—
so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals.”
-Mark 1:7

Jesus said that John was great in Matthew 11:11. Specifically, that he was the greatest man ever born of a woman.

But John knew that Jesus was so much greater.
And that’s what made John great.

Reminder:
Jesus is so much greater than any trial you’re facing today.
He’s so much greater than the pleasure of any sin you’re considering.
He’s so much greater than any other ambition you could pursue.

To truly be great, never forget that He is so much greater.

Eric.

I like things to look neat, tidy, and sorta fresh. So there ya have it.

Eric.

Eric.

The P: Cursory Glance and PaulVaartjes.com

The E: Review.

The A: Blog of a Girl and Alyssa’s Books

Visualising the Bible - By Chris Harrison

Here is how the image’s creator, Chris Harrison explains it:

The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc – the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.

This image so wonderfully displays the completeness and unity of the Bible. The tens of thousands of cross references testify that this is one complete body of work

This is truly an amazing display of the truth that “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:22) For how else could 66 books, written by over 40 men, over a period of 1500 years be so unified and interconnected if it was not the true Word of God?

The beauty of this rainbow image and what it communicates should serve to warn those who believe they can take sections from the Bible, or add to it. For how can you take or add from something which relies on itself so much? How can you use a verse of the Bible to support your argument, when you don’t also consider the hundreds of other verses connected to it? The Bible is one  - it cannot be broken up. We must survey the entire Bible to determine what it is saying on an issue before rashly using one verse to prove a point or condemn something.
For John says, “If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18 NIV)

Paul.

Higher quality versions of this image, as well as other Bible visualisations can be found at Chris Harrison’s website

In the past 60 days, 80 people have died from the swine flu. In those very same days, 6 000 000 people have died from hunger. That’s 75 000 for each swine flu death. It’s also over one quarter of the population of Australia. 960 000 of those deaths were innocent children.

On Wednesday, a petrol station in Sydney lowered petrol prices to 41.8c for one hour. That same day, 100 people died in a plane crash in Indonesia. They were pushed three ad-breaks later.

While you’ve been reading this, just in our own country 100 000 people are living on the streets.

While you’ve been reading this, 100 babies were killed in abortions.

While you’ve been reading this, 250 babies were born. 125 of those were born into poverty. Of those 125, about 25 will not live to see their 5th birthday.

This is a grim world. Much more sordid than the news wants to tell you. Our world is not just tainted, but ruined, by sin. Tonight, in excess of 200 children will be stolen from their homes, their parents may well be killed, and they will be de-humanised and turned into combat fighting machines. Some of them may be as little as 3 years old.

Amidst all of this, however, there is hope. You see, God, the maker and ruler of what was once a perfect and spotless universe, became man. Not for fun, not to see what it was like. No, He did it for me. He did it for you. Why? So that he could die.

It seems odd, and certainly not common. That’s because it’s not. Jesus was the only perfect man to ever live. He was flogged, beaten, mocked and ultimately crucified and murdered, suffering to wrath of God so that you don’t have to. And what have you done to deserve it? Nothing! But God is gracious, and to all who trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus comes salvation and forgiveness of all that we have done. This salvation is open to all; to the hungry, the rich, the poor, the child soldiers, the murderers and the average joes.

Of course, there is one thing missing here. It seems above that Jesus is still dead. ‘What use is a dead God?!’ i hear you asking. The good news, however, is that after 3 days, Jesus was raised to life. He appeared to more than 500 people, and now sits in heaven with God! Through His death and resurrection alone can I be saved from my sin. Through His death and resurrection alone can swine flu victims be truly saved. Through His death and resurrection alone can Barack Obama be saved. Through his death and resurrection alone can the starving find forgiveness. And through his death and resurrection alone can you find forgiveness. Now that, if you ask me, is real news.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”

Romans 5:8-9

Eric.

“There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a prize fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity.”

—Mark Driscoll, Relevant Magazine[10]

Can i highly recommend Driscoll’s podcast on dating and relationships here (click on downloads -> direct link to audio. It’s not big, and it’s awesome.)

Eric.

“Here’s what happened: I told Gaby I “pulled strings” and she was going to get to do a contest at center court during a time out at the Chicago Bulls/Philadelphia 76ers game. She was blindfolded, spun around, and told she had to “find” Benny the Bull in 30 seconds. The crowd cheered and booed to help her out as she blindly made her way around the court in front of 22,000 people.
But she didn’t find Benny… !”

There’s some pics on the site, but i’ve gone to the effort of putting them here for you. I aww-ed, which i don’t do. so make sure you view them in order:

Searching...

Emerson is probably the most scared person on the planet about now...

Please say yes... please say yes... please please please... Move camera guy!!

Awwww!

So there you have it. Emerson’s business is now ours, and we’re all free to awww.

Eric, resident ninja-viking-wizard.

Alyssa – condemner of society